what mods 'could' i get away with?

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 06:50

cos my insurance is gonna be a <unt

i'm gonna leave the nova pretty much standard and concentrate on de-rotting and the like for a year or so.

was wondering about what i could do to the 'lil 1.3 SR engine and whole car in general? that would improve things as it is a 13+ year old car! that i could get away with insurance wise (not that i would of course

hyperthetically speaking

)

what about head mods? and other bits and pieces.
is a semi-rebuild a good idea and is it something that i could attempt?

any idea's and help appreciated

**tomstickland** · 19-04-2002 07:07

Head mods, but they are quite expensive if off the shelf (£200-£400 for an extra 5-7BHP).

Cam swap, quite cheap way of adding some top end torque and BHP but you'll lose a little of low rpm torque. Again 5-7BHP.

In a light car like the Nova these 1.3 engines are a riot. I had a 1.3 Astra and the engine was really eager and free revving.

So, sensibly speaking, I think you'd be better off doing the following first:

-rebuild suspension with new bushes, top mounts, rod ends, ball joints, everything.
-fit gas shocks. Keep std rideheight.
-That' snot modification but it'll transform the car, making it quicker round the twisty bits.

Cut the bottom of the air intake box so that it draws air in from more than just the piddly little inlet hole. I think that K&N or someone make filters that will still fit in the air box. It'll look standard then.

Exhaust.Hmm. A slightly bigger and freer flowing system will perk the engine up a bit, but the std is liveable with.

Cam

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 07:18

i like the sound of rebuilding suspension, hadnt thought about that - good idea

so if i fitted gas shocks with std ride height the insurance people wont put premium up then? would i still tell them and just say that the old shocks were worn and needed replacing?

cheers

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 07:28

also i would like to fit astra 16v ate front brakes cos i've driven some nova's before and the brakes are scarily poor!! could i pretend these where what i thought was standard or do you think they could void any claims because of them!?

**tomstickland** · 19-04-2002 07:29

I'm not a legal person, but I would think that gas shocks are just replacement shocks. They're not expensive. I bought some for £40 each from Halfords Partstore about 2 years ago.

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 07:30

cool

thanks for help

**Alex Nova** · 19-04-2002 07:59

Regarding the Astra 16v brakes mod, I know a lad who installed them on his Nova a couple of years ago.

He rang his insurance company to tell them, keeping legal obviously. They wanted to charge him another £280 or something daft like that.

In the end he argued the point that if he was to remove the brakes altogether, then would it bring the price down!!

So just beware, make sure you get a written quote for extras before adding them, because they tell you one price verbally, and then charge you another.

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 08:08

bummer! will see what they say

thanks.

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 08:22

http://www.gtiworld.fsnet.co.uk/porting.htm

this any good as a basic guide? if i was to attempt doing it myself on a spare head!

**rgv_stu** · 19-04-2002 08:27

i fitted a weber 32/34 and a k=n when i first had the car

eagle star then decided they wouldnt insure it

they were woried about the filter so i hacked the original airbox on the weber and that was fine

- idiots

the weber is a direct replacement so its NOT classed as a mod

brakes / alloys make no difference on my policy

im with cis and u can do what u like pretty much without grief

best to check with the insurance first tho

**Jhonno** · 19-04-2002 08:45

concentrate on the chassis first as brakes/suspension can be worth more than 25bhp round the twisties or a track

(heard of ferrari's being beaten round a track by 205 gti's with virtually no engine mods but really well set up chassis

)

**Jhonno** · 19-04-2002 08:46

(you could strip it out also - that seems to be the fashion at the min

)

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 08:58

i just rang an insurance company that i had my best quote from b4 but for a sport instead of 1.3 sr and the sport is cheaper to insure than sr!

twin 40's - drools -

interesting!

**Orbital** · 19-04-2002 09:27

I had my old car insured as a standard belmont GLSi but it was not standard the mods i didn't tell them about where, lowered -30mm all round, uprated brakes, strut brace, GTE bonnet, GTE bumper, induction kit, FSE boost valve and a spoiler.

**orange man** · 19-04-2002 09:29

tut tut tut

lmao

**anthonyian** · 19-04-2002 10:25

These insurance companies wouldn't know a spoiler from a hole in the road. If you tell them of a 'mod' to the car it probably wouldn't make any differance to the insurance, but because insurance companies are all about making money, and not giving it back, they will pluck what ever they think they can get away with, from you. It is all about till receipts at the end of the day.

**Alex Nova** · 19-04-2002 10:30

I remember a few months back I got a quote on a Nova sport, and It was £300 cheaper than what I was paying for my 1989 1.3SR.

Amazing, more power + more value = less insurance

doesn't add up, it's probably due to the sport being older

**Fenix** · 19-04-2002 10:31

I did the works to the internals of my 1.4 SR because it wouldn't be noticed. Produced a hell of a lot more power too.

Only problem is. I wrote the car off and although they haven't noticed the mods they are refusing to give me the car back as its a class B write off.

Now hopefully i'm still gonna get it back (argument being if they can reshell a class b porsche why can't i reshell a class b nova) but it's scary thinking somebody could end up picking up £1500's worth of engine for £75 from a scrappy

**anthonyian** · 19-04-2002 10:35

I work in a hotel, and insurance companies and the like are always holding seminars. They are always thinking of new ways and idea's of conning the public into parting with more and more money. I know its difficult but a lot of the time you have to use your common sense. if you think a quote is too much, then don't pay it, go somewhere else - or at your own peril - don't tell them

**anthonyian** · 19-04-2002 10:41

Fenix - When all the insurance squabbling is all over, don't you have first refusal on the car? Even if it is a write off, don't the insurance company tell the DVLA, so if you wanted to rebuild the car. The DVLA would send out a balck mark to insurance companies and you would have to have it retested and then return it back from the dead with a 'Q' reg

**Fenix** · 19-04-2002 12:06

They keep telling me it's illegal to release a cat b car as the shell has to be destroyed.

They keep telling me it's illegal but everytime i ask for where this law is they just um and ah.

I've checked up on half a dozen sites to do with this sort of thing and theres no law that says i can't have the car back.

All that needs to happen is for me to send the V5 to DVLA and the insurance company to send off V23 (i think)

**tomstickland** · 19-04-2002 12:32

If you want to do your own headwork then I recommend reading "modern engine tuning" by "a graham bell" as a starter.
Also go round some 2nd hand book shops - there's quite a few books that help give you the idea.

**MarkH** · 19-04-2002 18:14

You know there's always a problem when buying a second hand car - if it's got subtle mods how are you to know the previous owner modified it?

**Cris Rose** · 19-04-2002 19:08

make sure you fit a strut brace, they may so much difference it's unreal - mine'll have the full suspension set up and top and bottom front strut braces

well worth it

**Jhonno** · 19-04-2002 19:53

u dont have to scrap a class b - its classes c and d that have to be scrapped

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